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There are two different partial insulation scenarios and a different approach to each.
1. The wall insulation does not cover the full height of the wall (e.g. insulation only goes from the top to 2 ft below grade).
This situation can be modeled by selecting the closest matching configuration out of the options provided under the Set Configuration button to the left of the Insulation Loc control (detailed mode in Wizard).
2. Only a portion of the wall perimeter is insulated (e.g. a partially finished basement with an unfinished and uninsulated utility room).
This situation can be modeled by following the instructions on the attached workbook.
If you are modeling an improvement that covers only a portion of the basement wall, then you will also want to edit the area used in the cost calculation. You can do this by clicking the Bid button on the detailed Basement page. Locate the row describing the insulation improvement and enter the area to be insulated in one of the # columns to the left of the Units column to override the Units.
Following the spreadsheet then I pick average R-values to enter into base and improved fields. But then these show up in the VEIC customer report–and they don’t make any sense. They don’t reflect what is there or what will be added. (It doesn’t say I’m adding R-17 to a bare wall….but says I’m adding R-13 to an R-4 wall, for example.) What shows up in the customer report is the same as what goes into the model. Am I missing something?
There are two answers to this question based on whether you are using the OptiMiser generic PDF report or VEIC’s custom report.
1. OptiMiser Generic Report
The best way to describe a scenario like this is through the Report Notes field found at the bottom of the Basement interface. This field can be used to describe, in text, what the existing and improved conditions are if the data on the generic report page is unclear. Keep in mind these Report Notes fields DO have a length limit for what will fit on the page, so double check your report to make sure all notes text is visible in the final product.2. VEIC Custom Report
To change the text that shows up in the table on the report page, you will have to create new items in the cost database. To do this, click the “>” button found directly to the right of the insulation controls. After clicking, an Add/Edit Item popup will appear. In this popup, you can select any row and click “Create New from selection…”. This will generate a new line item at the bottom of the list where you can edit the Item name to describe the situation succinctly. This process can be done for both Base and Improved insulation selections. For example, you could have a Base insulation item that says, “1/2 wall bare, 1/2 wall R-13” and an Improved insulation item that says, “R-13 added to bare wall, existing insul left as is”. (NOTE: In the new line items you create, the only thing that matters is the item description – energy properties are irrelevant because you have entered the assembly effective R value from the workbook attached to this post. This means that when you select your new descriptive line item in the insulation control, the depth control should be set to 0.) In addition to making brief descriptions in the table, do not forget you can use the summary and issue rows for the Basement pages to help describe the situation you are improving. Another option would be to make the item description say, “See paragraph below”.In either case, if you follow the directions in the BasementPartialWallImprovement.xls workbook and enter the effective R value, the model will be correct even though the report may sometimes have difficulty describing these more complex situations without a little additional work from you.
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